BlackGummy 2016 Shifty Rhythms stage

BlackGummy began as the brainchild of Los Angeles-based producer Iman Marouf. Marouf discovered the entity called “BlackGummy” in 2013 during a trip to the Middle East and Asia, and instantly formed a unique and inseparable bond with the alien-like idol. Since their first meeting, the producer and the entity have virtually conjoined into an indivisible whole, never leaving one another’s side. Trained by Steve Duda, the legendary sound engineer (who counts mau5trap head honcho deadmau5 among his frequent collaborators) and creator of the Serum VST, BlackGummy consistently showcases his unique prowess for employing a wide variety of entirely original sounds in his songs. A graduate of the Icon Collective music production school in Burbank, CA, BlackGummy and Duda met via the school’s mentorship program, where his apprenticeship helped to hone the young producer’s sound design and engineering skills. That is when BlackGummy was asked to beta test the Serum VST for Duda (and is accordingly listed in the VST’s credits, along with deadmau5 himself). In 2015, mau5trap discovered BlackGummy and immediately recognized his unique prowess for production and sound design. Later that year, the label released BlackGummy’s first original “Lullaby” on mau5trap’s We Are Friends compilation, which Earmilk called a “can’t miss.” Most recently, in February 2016, mau5trap released BlackGummy’s debut EP titled “Singularity,” inspired by the concept of “technological singularity,” which Dancing Astronaut praised as “an intriguing artistic vision,” which “moves uninhibited from dark industrial to uplifting progressive, challenging the notion that producing one style necessitates ignoring the other.” Since the implicit convergence of the producer’s and idol’s identities into one amalgamation, BlackGummy spends almost all of his time locked away, with the idol, in his in-home studio, crafting new productions that attempt to lend a voice to the silent idol. He only withdraws from his studio in rare instances: first, to perform alongside the idol in nightclubs and music venues, and second, to search the four-corners of the Earth for more clues as to the idol’s origins. His fascination with the latter arose from a Latin inscription that lay emblazoned beside the idol when he first discovered it. The quote read, “In perpetuum, salutem in omnibus locis; In omni loco, in omni tempore.”